Plus to Minus
[Dream
target date - Summer 1999]
A
mature bank clerk was supervising a school leaver - his first
transaction. The overly-smart boy looked-on, dazzled by frightening
four-figure sums shifting around the screen in a dizzy downward
spiral. I was bewildered by this cash-countdown too, had been
for the best part of twenty years! Outside, Mansfield marketplace
bustled with old women and obedient bag-carrying husbands -
Retired mineworkers living-off their severence pay.
EAGLE
I walked across empty paved areas that once formed the heart
of the town, where shops had since been replaced with Citizens
Advice Centres, or Travel Agents offering cut-price deals to
Spain. A dual-carriageway sliced through what used to be the
Eagle Tavern - our art school local. The road, out-of-proportion
with such a small market-town was devoid of traffic.
VIOLENT
WINDOWS
Further
upstream, the shocking red brick shell of Mansfield General
Hospital stood like some ghostly mausoleum, its white venetian
blinds exposed to the elements through violent windows. When
I was at college I used to walk past the building daily, it
nestled among comfortable suburban dwellings back then. Burns,
amputations and crushed limbs once flooded through the Emergency
Department - mainly mining accidents. In 1976 I shared the lift
with a large bearded man who died from his chest injuries -
my broken arm seemed trivial by comparison. Surveying the dereliction
made me realise the transitory nature of urban life. That all
the concrete certainties of childhood; people, places, language,
community, were destined to become dust and memory.
ESCAPE
VELOCITY
Although few people knew, or even cared, today was the 30th
anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. So a visit to the
town of my childhood seemed all the more significant, illustrating
how things have progressed in the last thirty years, or perhaps
showing how little things have really changed? The optimism
generated by the early US space programme remains an enduring
memory. By now, I thought we'd be exploring the stars. Instead,
I find myself wandering through my birthplace, reflecting on
whether it will ever be possible to escape this provincial town?
Visit
the Scene
